CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- A town justice who took himself off the case of a
woman charged with illegally feeding wild deer was accused days later of
committing the same offense.

Justice Thomas Kolbert was accused of violating the state's deer- feeding
ban in a Feb. 16 complaint to the state Department of Environmental
Conservation, DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren confirmed Wednesday.

Wren said Kolbert was not ticketed by the DEC because, prior to the
conclusion of an investigation, the citizen complainant opted to file the
violation directly with the town court. The DEC assisted in filing the
paperwork, she said.

Kolbert did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Jeffrey Whiting, one of the Buffalo suburb's two prosecutors, said he had
not seen any paperwork related to the case and could not comment on its
status.

The other town attorney, James Vallone, did not immediately respond to a
telephone message.

Two days before the DEC received the complaint, Kolbert recused himself
from the case of Anita Depczynski, a retiree facing a potential jail
sentence for repeatedly feeding the deer in the town's Stiglmeier Park.

Kolbert at the time cited local reaction to the deer-feeding issue.

"Since this case has hit, people are coming up to me _ political people,"
Kolbert said.

The ban was felt strongly in Stiglmeier Park, where feeding the deer had
been a tradition for more than 20 years. The animals, given names like
Piglet, Pumpkin and Toothpick, are so tame they eat from visitors' hands.

Depczynski, 64, became known as the "deer lady" because of her regular
habit of feeding the deer cracked corn and wild apples from a red wagon.

She has been cited by the DEC on numerous occasions and was
sentenced by a different judge to 15 days in jail after being
convicted of deer feeding last year. An appeal is pending. That
conviction followed a 2003 conviction on the same charge, for
which she was given a conditional discharge.

Upon hearing of the accusations against Kolbert, Depczynski defended the
judge and said he should not be prosecuted.

"I hope this doesn't stop him from feeding the wildlife," she said.
"There is no food for the wildlife out there."

Those who violate the ban face potential fines of up to $250 and upto 15 days in jail.

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